Family-friendly policies at your company can increase the focus and productivity of your employees and reduce the amount of time they miss from work.
This is the opinion of Andrea Wicks-Bowles, senior consultant, director global initiatives at Bright Horizons, whilst speaking during HRreview’s Family-Friendly Business Practice on a Global Scale webinar.
Ms Wick-Bowles said:
If you offer family-friendly policies to your workers you can see the focus of your employees increasing, if their work helps you look after your family. Also when you track why people tend to miss work, it is tends to be due to family disruptions so these policies could improve absence rates. It is also seen to increase productivity.
Also, Ms Wick-Bowles added that family-friendly policies are not an approach for part of your organisation, but for your whole company.
Jennifer Liston-Smith, head of thought leadership at Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions explained how these policies could help to close the gender pay gap as it will stop women from having to take the majority of time off work due to a pregnancy.
Ms Liston-Smith said:
In a time where there is an emotional focus on the world of work, it is good to have LGBTQ networks at your company and having gender neutral parental leave policies even when the Government does not enforce it.
London School of Economics (LSE) research found that parental leave does not necessarily go far enough, as it just focuses on helping a family establish itself. It stated that you need more put in to places, such as childcare in the office, a helpline to offer support and assistance with funding schools and further education.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
